President Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off last night at the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. The event was held in Atlanta and was sponsored by CNN.
Early on in the debate, Biden stumbled through many of his answers and made nine false statements while Trump made approximately 30 false statements. The economy, immigration, foreign policy, and abortion were the leading issues discussed during the event, with Trump largely focusing on Biden’s approach to the border crisis.
“We had the safest border in history,” said the former president. “Now we have the worst border in history. There’s never been anything like it, and people are dying all over the place.”
NBC’s fact-checking team claimed this was a false statement, saying “In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic brought down border crossings, there were roughly 860,000 illegal border crossings, far more than in any year during the Obama administration.”
In response to Trump’s attacks, President Biden countered that his office “worked hard to get a bipartisan agreement that not only [would have] changed all of that,” but also “changed it in the way that now you’re in a situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally.”
Moreover, the president blamed Trump for the national debt, arguing that Trump’s net borrowing was $8.4 trillion while his was $4.3 trillion.
Later in the debate, both were questioned about their ages and disputed over golf. During closing remarks, Biden focused on childcare credit and the reduction of inflation. Trump concluded after honing in on military aid.
ABC News will host the next presidential debate on Sept. 10, 2024.
